PORCUPINE QUILLS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

PORCUPINE QUILLS

A Legend Debunked

Did you ever wonder if the porcupine really can shoot its quills? asks W. P. Keasby, in the “Christian Science Monitor.”

The porcupine is a fair-sized, slowmoving rodent, found in the forests of both hemispheres. It is chiefly remarkable for the possession of a bristling coat of strong stiff quills or spines, mixed with the coarse hair of its back and sides. When pursued or attacked, it sometimes roils up into a compact ball, presenting to its opponent something of the appearance of a pincushion well stuck with barbed pins. Ordinarily, the quills lie smoothly against the body of the animal, but when the porcupine is irritated or excited, the quills stand sharply erect and bristling. If any enemy touches a porcupine, it instantly slaps at the intruder with its club-like spinearmoured tail. So sudden and effective is this lashing out, that it may have given rise to the popular fallacy that the porcupine can shoot its quills. Actually, the porcupine has no control over its quills except to ratse and lower them by special muscles which lie just under the skin. But the qu.lls are so loosely attached that the slightest tug of the barbed tip imbedded in flesh or clothing is sufficient to transfer their attachment from the porcuPl ¥he°porcupFne is practically omnivorous as regards fruits and trees, eating leaves, twigs, and bark rather in-

discriminate!} - . Campers in the northern woods of America have discovered them to be great gnawers, too, finding them quite willing to gt aw through planks and boards for the bacon or salt they may contain.